Tag Archives: photography

Take a look at this great set (100 in all) that photographer Scott London took during this year’s mother of all freak-fests, Burning Man. I’ve never been myself and honestly, I still haven’t worked up the courage to spend that much time out there in the desert without all the modern amenities I’ve grown accustomed to, but it’s amazing to see such a large group of people creating huge structures, machines and other artwork in the vastness of that terrain.Maybe next year…maybe…

I stumbled upon Richard Barnes’ photography and this set in particular really struck me as beautiful. To me they form a visual bridge of sorts between the museum behind-the-scenes images of Klaus Pichler and the suspended formaldehyde sculptures of Damien Hirst. Perfectly framed beasts, frozen, seemingly caged for all time.

One of my favorite small branding/design firms, Official Mfg Co. (or OMFG), has redesigned and relaunched their website complete with some new features, an updated shop and new projects. The Portland, OR based firm has created or been instrumental in branding, identity, and design for such great clients as Ace Hotel, Property Of apparel, Clyde Common and many more. I love the professional yet still personal touches the small group of designers bring to the site, especially the home page Instagram feed, which sometimes chronicles projects as they work on them, giving a great peek-behind-the-curtain into their process.

Be sure to also check out their great new work for Scandinavian clothiers Dunderdon, the Spirit of ’77 bar, and their in-store graphics for GAP. Well worth a click.

With Instagram just announcing their 150,000,000th photo uploaded and shared, I thought it was a good time to post a couple of my own in loving appreciation for the iPhone app. Instagram is a great way to compose, manipulate and sometimes even promote (General Electric and IBM both have great feeds) photographs that get shared and “liked” by a community of over 7 million and growing. My initial reluctance (I’m a physical Polaroid fan at heart) has gave way to full-on conversion, I have really enjoyed sharing and seeing all the great photos posted from all over the world.

I have a running collection of my Instagrams here. And if you are on Instagram, be sure to say hi, I’m “BryanByczek”.

Earlier this week, one of my favorite photographers, Kim Holtermand, announced an awesome new project in collaboration with film makers Scenic and fellow visionary Tim Navis. Outliers, Volume 1, aims to create a series of short films in and around the beautiful and mysterious Icelandic countryside. A Kickstarter project has already launched and you can pledge funds now until September, with a whole range of tiers with some great and unique gifts for your support, like limited edition books celebrating the project and one-off prints and stills of their sure-to-be impressive work.

I included a Lissy Elle image last year in a “Weekly Stimuli” installment (what happened to that feature you may ask? It’s returning soon, but in a more robust form) and knew a dedicated post to her and her work was long overdue. Lissy photographs – sometimes manipulated, edited, photoshopped or staged – are often fantastical and sometimes macabre. They are all expertly composed with little elements you may not catch on first viewing. They have that elusive quality of being able to suck you in, and give the impression they are perhaps a still from a magical film or part of a much bigger story.

The other aspect I find remarkable is that all of Lissy’s work in some shape or form is either injected with a deep feminine tone or translates metaphors and themes most often associated with that gender. In doing so, the images feel as if they are exploring deeply personal thoughts and feelings while simultaneously capturing highly relatable emotional and visual territory.

Intel has launched a fascinating new website called The Museum of Me, which to put it in the most basic terms, mines data and images from your Facebook page and creates curated “rooms” inside a museum (they look like pretty realistic architectural renderings) devoted to you, your friends, the words you use most and the things you “like”. I liken this to some kind of digital mausoleum, and though morbid, I would not be surprised if something like this is employed in the not too distant future to remember those who have passed. As for the living, it’s a fun, if kind of creepy, way of seeing your online activity visualized in a completely different way.

About the Byczek blog

The Byczek Blog was the personal blog of Bryan Byczek. "Was" because it is now shuttered. But fear not, this blog may be closed but in it's wake is a bigger, better website filled with lots more creative inspiration by a great team of talented folks. Visit the new site here: The Exaltation